And here, although perhaps out of place in a work like this, we ask how an editor, dipping his pen in the black blood of treason and tracing the dark lines of crime along the columns of his paper could claim postal protection while aiming to destroy the very power under which he claimed the right to publish his incendiary sheet?
That press should cease to be considered a part and portion of an institution when its columns maintain the right not only to utter treason, but to claim on constitutional grounds, according to its idea, the privilege of expressing sentiments calculated to destroy the union of the States.[40]
We have alluded to the frequent changes that are made in our post-offices: we annex parallel passages from the English post-office administration and that of our own:—
In the English postal system there are potential elements which render it a success, while in ours it is a failure.
One of these elements is that the _personnel_ of their postal administration is more permanent, and the establishment is placed purely on a business footing. It is administered by experienced men. Once thoroughly instructed in the laws, the regulations, and their duties, the department measures their claims to office by their continued fidelity and attention to its interests. In some branches of the service, candidates are admitted upon both a physical and mental examination of their qualifications. A medical officer examines the aspirants for clerkships and for the places of carriers and laborers. Post-office savings-banks are connected with the establishment. Provision for life-assurance, the premiums being deducted from weekly or monthly wages, is also a part of their system. They thus combine nearly all interests to procure a permanent and faithful devotion to duty.
The elements which make up our postal department are those which politics create. These are constantly changing, and every change produces its own creatures. The very resignations are the consequences of these changes, and not of the desire to secure other employment. Men would rather owe to themselves the right of leaving a position than submit to the pompous notice from an official, commencing with, _“Your services are no longer required,” &c._